The Sunday morning news show circuit provided a number of opportunities for top US officials and would-be officials to rail against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, with a number of Senators calling for him to be treated as a terrorist.
Senate And while calls for Assange’s execution seem to be a favorite pastime of Republican presidential hopefuls like Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, the condemnation of the whistleblower for embarrassing the US government has been bipartisan, with only a handful of officials declining to speak ill of the revelations.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D – MO) said those involved with WikiLeaks needed to do a “gut check of their patriotism,” despite apparently none of the WikiLeaks leadership actually being Americans (Assange is an Australian citizen in Britain), while former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and current Sen. Joe Lieberman (I – CT) convinced Amazon.com to shut down WikiLeaks’ website (which only worked for a few hours) with a threatening phone call.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R – AZ) condemned President Obama for not “acting against” Assange, and Sen. John Ensign (R – NV) has co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Lieberman to provide some means to prosecute Assange, though there seems to be a pretty wide split amongst those who believe Assange should be prosecuted, those who want him detained without charges, and those who want him outright assassinated.
What law did Assange break?
Oh, yeah. All the cowards are lining up to take a cheap shot. How very manly, brave and patriotic of 'em!
Don't you find it interesting that none of the FMSM have bothered to ask real lawyers whether the US could prosecute Assange? Wouldn't that open the door to prosecuting the WaPo, NYT, LAT, Christian Science Monitor, etc…for doing exactly the same thing – exposing the "secrets" of the USG? This is a 1st Amendment argument – complicated by the fact that most everyone at wiki are not US citizens. This is not a case of publishing secret documents, it's a case of secret documents not being properly secured and safeguarded.
Of course, the information in these docs is extremely interesting and is better for having been exposed.
Nice to see all those fancy pants sweat for a change.
he will end up a modern day martyr to just about all of the world , this press has brought me to look a bit deeper at past leaks vids etc I am sickened by the coverups my views have being totally changed forever
The collusion of Amazon with The Regime is, to me, of secondary importance to the hypocrisy of the Regime itself. While I have no doubt that some of the documents leaked by WikiLeaks will lead to adverse political conditions for the US, my real regret is that documents pertaining to other nations such as China or Russia or any of our real enemies weren't leaked first. Why? Because if, say, a trove of documents relating to, say, China doing exactly the same things we're doing were to surface, the USG and the media would be all over it decrying spying and espionage and all sorts of charges would be levelled against the Chinese and the USG would be screaming for the heads of those responsible. What if China's Secretary of State were found to have authorized the theft of our diplomats' personal information? Do you think for one second the USG would be screaming to have Assange imprisoned and shut down, and our politicians screaming for his death? NO- they'd be heaping praise on WikiLeaks for 'aiding the spread of democracy'.
BUT- when is was our turn, guess what would happen- exactly what's happening now. All of a sudden WL would be a threat to democracy, and Assange would be the Anti-Christ incarnate. This would then definitely give the lie to the USG's position on WL- they can't have it both ways, and to spin it any way other than the original praise would be nothing short of hypcritical on the world stage.
That's the mistake Assange made- not outing documents on America's rivals first, and securing him a place of power in the American mode of thinking. THEN, when all is well and good, he could release the documents about the USG and his position would be much more secure in that it would put the USG in a no-win situation by attacking him.
As it stands, it's just a big mess, but shooting the messenger isn't the answer- not doing the crimes in the first place is the answer. As for the documents being released? If you can't stand the heat, get out of politics.
so now what is it,a terrorist (define again-please,,,it keeps changing,oo) or just a spY,in which case this tape will self destruct in the complete lack of initative to rise above what appears mostly as imperial realm gossip,not even of financial concern to the capitalist cabal,junta,racket,whatever the name it recognizes it self as,,,the roar of the denials is deafening in their lack of silence and magnamity or benavaoulence,,,the mouse that roared,very interesting,I kno nothincQ,except if a word can make a mouse roar then imagine what pictures or art forms,,,oh my god get this off to HQ right away
Assange needs to set up a death switch system, so that if he can't for whatever reason log on and reset it every so often (say, in the case of imprisonment or a mysterious death in a freak gardening accident) everything he has on hand- redacted or not- will go out to every media outlet he has an address for, and every individual who asks to be on the mailing list. This gives Assange some sort of a hedge against being hounded so much, and a 'second strike' capability in the event of his unfortunate disappearance or untimely demise. the information is out there- how do you want it served up? Redacted or not, it's your choice- pick your poison and get on with it.